1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electrodes and more particularly to an improved electrode for use in an alkaline electrolyte-containing cell, which electrode contains a novel current collector.
2. Prior Art
In electrochemically generating energy, usually means are provided for collecting the current in the electrode and for transmitting it to an external tab or terminal. It has been conventional to use relatively expensive inert metallic materials as current collectors in rechargeable cells designed for long life. For example, silver grids are generally used in zinc/zinc oxide electrodes in such cells.
In some instances, costs have been cut by plating noble metals or other chemically inert metals of relatively high cost on high conductivity metal cores which are not chemically inert. For example, silver can be plates on copper current collectors. The more uniform and thick the silver plating layer, the more closely such a current collector approaches the performance and longevity of pure silver current collectors. However, the thicker the silver coating, the higher the ultimate cost of the current collector. One such procedure involves plating or cladding a strip of copper with a noble metal and then forming the clad sheet into a current collecter by slitting, perforating or shearing it to open it up and increase its surface area. These forming operations, however, expose raw copper edges which decrease the performance and longevity of the current collector. Plating of copper pieces with noble metals after the pieces have been cut, slit, perforated, sheared or the like is a more costly procedure but provides a better current collector. Nevertheless, there still is need for an improved type of current collector which will exhibit high performance characteristics and great longevity and which can be fabricated rapidly at low cost.